Most gas cooking appliances, including gas-fired barbecue grills, utilize valve and knob combinations for controlling the temperature and flame intensity. These valve and knob combinations commonly utilize so-called “push to turn” shafts which are aligned with associated apertures in the appliance walls. In other words, common control knobs are movable inwardly and outwardly over a limited range of axial movement, are biased towards the outwardly position, and are rotatable about the axis only when moved inwardly. As such, most gas cooking appliances require a gap or space between the control knob and the appliance wall to facilitate the “push to turn” function. It is recognized that these gaps or spaces may not be desirable, since the gaps not only detract from the overall appearance of the grill but also provide a location for food and grease to accumulate. Additionally, food or grease can easily reach the aperture in the appliance wall and accumulate inside of the appliance.
As a result, some manufacturers incorporate bezel assemblies into their appliances, especially on higher-end models. Bezels typically include two or more pre-drilled holes which are adapted to align with pre-drilled holes in the appliance wall. The bezel is attached to the appliance wall by means of fasteners which pass through the respective pre-drilled holes. The bezel also typically includes an aperture which is aligned with an aperture in the appliance wall. In this manner, the bezel is aligned co-axially with the valve shaft. Bezels also usually include an annular raised portion with an inner diameter which closely corresponds with the outer diameter of the control knob. The annular raised portion of the bezel serves to “frame” the control knob, thereby substantially covering the inherent gap between the knob and the appliance wall and reducing the amount of debris which will accumulate under the control knob. Moreover, the annular portion serves an aesthetic purpose by streamlining the control panel of the appliance.
While prior art bezels of the type described above solve some of the heretofore-mentioned problems which are inherent to gas appliances, many complex and challenging problems still remain. For example, manufacturers of such gas appliances still struggle with alignment problems. More specifically, depending upon the design of the grill, it may be troublesome to align the bezel to be perfectly centered with the axis of the valve shaft. Failure to align the bezel with the shaft (and, in turn, with the control knob) can have some detrimental implications. For example, there is usually only a small space between the annular raised portion of the bezel and the control knob. As such, it is usually visually apparent when the bezel is not perfectly centered with the control knob. Moreover, if the bezel is not perfectly aligned with the valve shaft, it can be difficult or near impossible to bring the control knob into engagement with the valve shaft without bending or otherwise damaging the stem of the control knob of the shaft of the valve.
Some manufacturers have attempted to solve this problem by replacing the pre-drilled mounting holes in the bezel with pre-drilled slots which allow the plate to be shifted relative to the pre-drilled mounting hole in the appliance wall. See, for example, the prior art bezel assembly shown in FIG. 11. This solution is somewhat adequate for grill designs in which the gas control valve is directly mounted to the back side of the control panel. In such cases, the manufacturer is capable of positioning the pre-drilled mounting holes for the bezel and the valve within reasonable tolerances, such that the assembler need only make minor adjustments of the bezel by sliding the bezel relative to the control panel along the length of the slotted mounted holes. Nevertheless, perfect or near-perfect alignment can not be guaranteed using the prior art bezels since the bezel can only be adjusted in a significant manner along a single axis, designated by axis Y in FIG. 11.
The prior art solution described above is inadequate or at least impractical for other grill designs in which the gas control valve is mounted to some other component of the grill, besides the control panel. In such cases, the position of the valve shaft relative to the aperture in the appliance wall cannot be easily controlled due to tolerance accumulation. To ensure perfect alignment in such cases would require significant additional design work and expense. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a bezel assembly which can be adjusted simultaneously along two axes.